Although the manufacture and use of a hardfile for a computer system is well known, the industry continues to develop solutions for enhancing the security and availability of the computer systems, and the components used in these computer systems. The development of security systems to restrict and control access to computer system resources and user data and applications has caused an undesirable side effect.
There are many reasons why an unauthorized user of the computer system resources and user data of a computer system should at times be permitted to have limited access to the operating system of the computer system, and various hardware/software utilities. For example, in the case when a computer technician installs new hardware for use with the computer system, the technician often needs to boot the computer system into an operational mode to properly configure the hardware and the computer system to use the new hardware. Sometimes one or more new software applications must be installed or existing applications may need to be modified. For existing computer systems, an administrator of a secured machine has had two options: 1) permit general access to the computer system, the resources and the user data and applications, or 2) deny the technician access. Sometimes access is enabled by properly entering special security information, for example a login identification and a password. When an administrator happens to be present and available, the administrator is able to enter the special security information to enable the technician to access the computer system.
In some cases the technician's access to computer system resources or application data is limited by the operating system according to a limited-permissions account. Unfortunately, many changes to the computer system require access privileges for the technician that are not properly limited by a non-administrator account. Further, the technician sometimes performs the services at times or locations when and where there is no administrator physically present. The administrator is often left with the unpleasant decision to forego the installation or to give security access information to the technician over the telephone or through other means that compromises the security of the computer system.
Further, administrators are responsible for safeguarding the computer systems and user applications/data not just from authorized access, but also from possible data loss or corruption through inadvertent or malicious users or applications. Also, misinstallation of some hardware and/or software has been attributed as contributing to data loss and corruption. Therefore it may be desirable to have an administrator confirm the technician's installation and run virus or other pest detection programs prior to enabling full operational mode of the installation or otherwise enables access to the entire enterprise.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for enabling reconfiguration of the computer system to allow for partial access to a hardfile by the operating system, utilities and in some cases certain applications of the computer system while preserving user data and applications. The present invention addresses such a need.